Film producer has approached actor Arvind Swami for settlement, his counsel tells Madras High Court

Actor Arvind Swami on Monday informed the Madras High Court that the producer of his 2018 Tamil movie ‘Bhaskar Oru Rascal’ has approached him for a settlement, with respect to remuneration and loan dues, after the issuance of an arrest warrant by the court last month.

Appearing before Justice P. Velmurugan, the actor’s counsel Roshan Balasubramanian said the High Court bailiff had attempted to execute the warrant and arrest the film producer, K. Murugan Kumar, on Thursday, July 4, 2024, but the whereabouts of the latter could not be traced.

“In the meantime, he (producer) had approached us for a settlement. Your Lordship may grant some time and we will see if it can be settled,” the counsel said. Accepting his request, the judge adjourned the hearing on an application pending before him to August 14.  

Mr. Swami had initially filed a civil suit in 2018 accusing the producer of not having paid his remuneration of ₹3 crore in full as per an agreement reached between them on April 7, 2017. He said, there was a due of ₹30 lakh and the producer had also not remitted the Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) amount of ₹27 lakh.

To top it all, the producer had taken a loan of ₹35 lakh from the actor to get the movie released and he had not repaid even that amount, the actor complained and obtained an ex-parte decree in 2019 for payment of ₹65 lakh along with interest at the rate of 18% per annum.

Then, the court had also directed the producer to remit the TDS amount of ₹27 lakh separately with the Income Tax department. Thereafter, the actor had filed a petition to execute the decree and an application seeking a direction to the producer to disclose his assets to the court.

It was during the hearing of the application that Justice Velmurugan had issued the arrest warrant last month.